A 3D TV that doesn’t need glasses

LAS VEGAS – Toshiba has a prototype 3D TV that doesn’t require special glasses, one major reason consumers aren’t rushing to jump on the 3D bandwagon.

“The biggest complaint you get from everybody is, ‘I dont want to wear the glasses,’ ‘ said Mike Danning, a Toshiba national trainer who was demonstrating the monitor at the Consumer Electronics Show.

The 3D monitors that are currently on the market require the viewer to wear special expensive glasses to see the effect.

But the 55-inch Toshiba monitor is a 4K ultra-resolution monitor that can display a picture that is four times better than a standard 1080p HDTV.

That higher resolution gives the monitor the ability to simultaneously display the same image nine times across the screen, each slightly lined up diferently from the other. Like 3D glasses, it’s designed to give the viewer’s left eye a slightly different view than the right eye and create a 3D effect.

One problem is if the viewer is sitting or standing in the wrong spot, the image will be blurred. But the monitor also has a camera and facial recognition software to line up the pixels to where the main viewer is located.

The monitor also has a set-up box that displays grids to help up to eight other viewers line themselves up so they can also see the clear 3D effect, Danning said.

The monitor is shipping in Japan and could come to the United States later this year, but Toshiba hasn’t made any decisions about when it will be available. Also unclear is how much the monitor will cost and what sizes will be available.